Apparatus for cleaning oil-wells.



` PATENTE!) AUG. 29, 1905.

W. E. GARDNER. APPARATUS FOR CLEANING OIL WELLS.

APLIGA'MON FILED DEO. 8. 1904.

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l/lllLLlAi/l EDXVARD GARDNER, OF PTTSBURG, PEUNYLVANIA, ASSltirNGlt OF NE-ElGHTl-l TO FRANK D. TlriO'MASON, OF CHICAGO, iLLINGlS, AND Ohm-HALF T A. F. BARRON, OF CHUAGO, iLLINOIS.

APPARATUS FR CLEANENG @lL-WELLS.

Patented. Aug. 29, 1905.

Original application tiled October 10, 1904, Serial No. 227,851. Divided and this application tiled December 8, 1904. Serial i No. 235,985.

Be it known that i, VVILLMM EDWARD Gsm Nen, a citizen ot the United States, and a resident of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new :ind usei'ul Improvements in Appare tus for Cleansing Oil-VVclls, or" which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.y

This application is a division of Letters IO Patent oi the UnitedStates granted to me' January i7, 1905, No. 780,279, for a method ot' cleansingr oil-wells.

The object of my invention is to soften and clean the walls oi' the here ot' the oil-bearing strata of an oil-welhso as to remove the solidiiied paraiiin or'other base of, the crude oihwhich dams up and choices the passages and channels through which the crude oil naturally iowsinto the well. This l accomplish by means which 2O heet and cause the ebullition oi' the iiuid that partly in side elevation'and partly in section,

applied thereto. Fig. 2 Ais a longitudinal vertical section of the heater used in connec tion therewith. Fig. 3 is a vertical central section ot' the portion oi' the plug or well packing and coupling' used in connection therewith.

Referring to the drawings, A represents 40 the bore of a well, the walls of which may, it' desired, be lined by suitable pipe or tubes, down as ter the oil-bearing strata oi' the well. My invention necessitates a metal pipe B. ot smaller diameter to be inserted down into the well, that has its lower end tapped into :ii-suitable heed l), which latter is provided with circumferential flanges c and with a plug rl, extending' downward centrally therefrom, that is tapped vinto the upper end of a section of pipe e, extending down into the oilbearing strzita oi' the well, as wiil hereinafter more fully appear., The bore el the well,

above the head b is separated from the portieri of the same below said head by a packing U, which surrounds the upper end of the section of pipe a and lills the space between the outer circumference of the same and the wallso'l the well sufficiently tight to prevent the escape of the steam and hot fluid generated by the apparatus civ my invention from the space below said packing. The pipe e extends down 'into the oil-bearing strata oi' .the well,

preferably toa point near the bottom ot the same, where itis tapped into the upper reduced end of a hollow chamber D, constituting the boiling-chamber of the heater used in connection with my invention, andprovides a support for the circumferential casing E of the resistance material surrounding the seme. rlfhe lower end of chamber D is' likewise re- 70 duced, preferably in the samev manner as its upper end, and has tapped into the'same a perforated 'intake-pipe F, the lower end of which is preferably closed.

The plug OZ ofthe head has a small vertical opening therein forthe downward pas sage therethrough of an insulated positive wire f of en electric circuit, whose lower end at a point just above the beater extends laterally out through a suitable opening in the side of the pipe e and is connected to asuitable binding-post g, 'tapped into the upper end of the resistance material of the heater ata suitable point. The lower edge et the resistancecasing E has a binding-post t tapped into it, and Ean insulated negative wire Gr connects said binding-post with the perforated intake F. '.ihe metal pipe of my invention formsthe negative leg' of the electric circuit.V

ln'operation whenthe circuit is turned on 9 the resistance-casing /E becomes highly heated and the fluid which accumulates in the oil-v bearing strata of the well and fills the chamber D soon becomes sutlcientiy heated for it4 to flow upward through the pipe e to point 9S just below the packing C, where it passes out ot' the elongated pert'oratio'ns j in the sides of the pipe into the space between the same and the walls of thc well, where, becoming cooler, it gravitatcs downward to the bottom of the well and is then `drawn into the intake and caused to circulate the same as before. `When this oil becomes' suficiently heated to .generate steam, the circulation and agitation of the IOC 

